It's Good to Be Back!

Close to 500 guests participated in the Alumni Weekend activities on October 21-22. A record number of alumni, parents, faculty and friends gathered at the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology on Friday night for the grand re-opening of the Hall of Life. 

To view weekend photos, visit Alumni Weekend - Part 1 and Alumni Weekend - Part 2.

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During the 19th Annual Peccary Society Dinner, Don Lofgren announced that Museum trustee Gretchen Augustyn (parent of Jennifer ’89) and her family have made a gift of $2 million to establish the Augustyn Family Curator of Paleontology Chair. This gift is the largest of any kind to the Museum and it more than doubles the museum’s endowment.

For the reunion celebrations, more than 250 alumni flew in from all corners of the globe: Chip Martin '66 from London, Peter Piness '71 from Nigeria, Tom Monroe '86 from Switzerland, David Chic '91 from Hong Kong, and Jordi Baron '06 from Bolivia -- plus alumni from 20 different states.

Other weekend highlights included the installation of Taylor Stockdale as the new Head of Schools, the 50th reunion celebration for the Class of '61, and a special remembrance of Bill Webb '39 with members of Webb family in attendance. Bill's daughters, Robin Bleeker, Nancy Webb, Joanne Webb and Sally Webb attended the alumni chapel service, along with Chieko and Kenji Webb, and Mollie Wilson, wife of former faculty member Gordon Wilson.

Several former faculty were also in attendance. They included: Margo Fish (wife of the late Mac Fish), Dick Walker (English and Spanish), Lachlan MacDonald (English and History), Rick Peterson (Chemistry), Mark Kushner (English), Janet Macaulay, Bill Ripley '60 (Spanish), and Clara Soto-Ivey (Spanish).

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Many thanks to the alumni who participated in the weekend activities:

  • Jordi Baron ’06 for her chapel talk to our VWS students
  • Peter Emblad '86 and Norm Carnick '86 for their thoughtful chapel talks at Saturday's chapel service; Bill Ripley ’60 for leading the service; and Alix Rosenthal ’91 for delivering the scripture reading.
  • Our alumni water polo players who took on our student team!
  • Janel Henriksen Hastings ’87 and members of the Alumni Council for their help this weekend.
  • Kim Firestone '51, Larry Ashton '70 and Mickey Novak '70 who were interviewed on KWEB as part of the special alumni radio show.
  • Patrick Campbell ’66 and John Trefethen ’62 for donating wine to the reception and dinner.

This year's reunion classes have also made class gifts totaling over $400,000 in honor of their reunions. We are most grateful for their generosity, which is in support of endowment, capital projects, and The Webb Fund.